Music Playlist

Nobuko Miyamoto (Folkways artist on A Grain of Sand) and Martha Gonzalez (Quetzal singer), part of Folklife Festival group FandangObon, are joined by community participants at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, 2015.

Photo by Mike Murase, courtesy of Great Leap, Inc.

A Smithsonian Folkways Playlist

Curated by Betto Arcos

California is a land of musical riches. After all, the so-called Golden State has been a destination for immigrants from all over the world. This playlist reflects that richness in all its splendor. From Woody Guthrie to Babatunde Olatunji, from traditional Afghani music to Chicano rock, and from Armenian wedding music to the Kronos Quartet, we have music that celebrates life.

This playlist features all songs from the extensive Smithsonian Folkways Recordings catalog, including many artists who performed at the 2016 Folklife Festival as part of the Sounds of California program.

1. Llorar, Llorar, Llorar

A song about departure, about leaving the one we love, but not regretting the decision to leave. “Crying is my only consolation, remembering my early life. The hour of my departure has arrived, and the cruel moment I have to abandon you.”

4. Comments on the Raga with Musical Illustration

Experimental radio program from Berkeley’s KPFA station produced this series of “audio collages,” which includes an eclectic mix of electronic music, a “sonata for loudspeaker,” a polyrhythmic improvisation created by sampling “primitive percussion instruments and voice,” and spoofed interviews with a phony scholar and musicians.

5. Son de la Danza de los Mixes

This is a traditional son, a musical genre heard all over Mexico. In this track, an indigenous Zapotec group performs a satirical piece about their indigenous neighbors, the “Mixes.” For more than two decades, Oaxacan brass bands have become a musical force in Los Angeles. Today, the region has more than twenty brass bands, and the number keeps growing.

6. Kataghani

Based in Fremont, home to the largest population of Afghans in the United States, Homayun Sakhi is a master of the Afghani rubâb. This is a traditional piece from Kataghan, in northern Afghanistan, typically played in teahouses during market days.

7. Tragafuegos (Fire Breathers)

East L.A.’s Quetzal artfully blends the stomping roots quality of son jarocho with the urgency of a song about the fire-eaters who work in the dangerous crossroads of Mexico’s urban streets to earn a living.

8. Mehriban Olaq

The avant-garde San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet, in collaboration with Azerbaijan’s Alim & Fargana Qasimov and Afghani master rûbab player Homayun Sakhi, reimagine a song by composer Shafiqa Akhundova.

10. El Son de Sánchez

Based in the town of Atwater, California, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley’s Michoacán community, Arpex plays music from the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán. This is a perfect example of son calentano, the sound of the original mariachi: no trumpets, all strings, played in the deepest, funkiest style and meant to be danced with as much passion and energy as can be mustered.

11. Traditional Wedding Dance

Armenian American musician Richard Hagopian is California’s living master of the oud. Born in Fowler, a town in the Central Valley, he plays classical and folk styles of the oud, an instrument usually associated with Arab and Turkish music, but also a part of Armenia’s musical tradition. This piece is a joyful wedding dance.

12. El Zacamandú

Los Camperos de Valles are a son huasteco trio based in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. For this album, the trio collaborated with San Jose-based musician-composer Artemio Posadas in a completely new interpretation of the genre. Posadas wrote all the lyrics in this album, including “El Zacamandú.”

13. Ife L'oju Laiye

Nigerian master Babatunde Olatunji was a mentor and teacher to many musicians in California, in many genres—acid rock, jazz, Latin music, and everything in between. In this album produced by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, Olatunji is joined by two major figures of California’s diverse music scene, Airto Moreira and Carlos Santana.

14. Divide and Conquer

This track—a call for unity and collaboration among people and causes—is from an album recorded in 1973 in New York City, where the artists first met and were active in anti-war and civil rights activism. Both Miyamoto and Chin have been based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, for decades now, continuing to use the performing arts as a means for building community and teaching Asian American history.

Betto Arcos is a music journalist based in Los Angeles. He is a regular contributor to NPR and PRI-BBC’s The World. From 1997 to 2015, he was the host of Global Village on KPFK. His weekly podcast, The Cosmic Barrio with Betto Arcos, features music from all over the world, with an emphasis on new releases and classic sounds from Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and all points in between.

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